Telly Babble
First of all, I know I owe some folks comments on several entries. I will get to them! I just talked so much about the new Doctor Who that at some point I just hit that point where I couldn't talk about it anymore. I'll probably answer them one I finish this post.
Secondly, I watched United, David Tennant's new drama, the other night. I have to say, it pained me seeing DT as a football coach. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against football coaches. My dad coaches football. (I have friends who are gay coach football! Ahem.) The thing that I have issues with is the way (especially British) television tends to make these dramas that glorify football to something akin to a religion. They're always set in Manchester, and it's always about the manly honest glory of the battle on the field at Old Trafford.
Now, I get that Manchester/the North of England has a very large football (fan) community, and a long football history involving many tragedies like the Munich Air disaster and Hillsborough, which is probably part of what created this blind faith in the glory of football. But whenever I see men (like Chris Chibnall) writing dramas that unashamedly glorify football to something almost divine, I go . . . right. So men are allowed to do that. The male fan community gets to make dramas like that, and gets to build stadiums and spend ridiculous sums of money on their passion. But the female fan community has to hide away on the internet and has to scrape together money to buy some servers for the one official fan community site they have, and they have to let men write about them in an "oh look at all those women actually entertaining themselves without any men around, who would have thought it possible" way.
Yes, chip on my shoulder, I freely admit that. Doesn't change the fact, though, that David Tennant doing a football drama (written by Chris Chibnall, no less) made me cringe a little.
Anyway. I did watch it, though. (Yes, I know, way to stick it to the man, self.) Seriously, does David just go through all the scripts he gets sent and pick out the ones that let him have EPIC SOBBING SCENES? Probably. I mean, if he does, that's actually quite smart, because he's good at those epic sobbing scenes. I'm guessing, though, that it's the casting agents. Drama on one of the BBC channels featuring a humble-but-kickass character who has an epic sobbing scene? CAST DAVID TENNANT.
I have to say, though, he didn't really convince me as a football coach. He had too much class and empathy. *clears throat* Still, since most of the drama wasn't so much about football, but about PEOPLE BEING REALLY SAD ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE DYING, he worked quite well. I do think that it was set up well, possibly except for the last bit, which seemed very rushed. The script took its time to introduce the team and the characters, and then spent a lot of time building up tension for the crash and showing the aftermath, and then, within twenty minutes of a one-and-a-half hour film, David Tennant Jimmy Murphy stands up to the evil football league, holds trials for replacement players, gets together a team and wins a match for United. While at the same time, Bobby Charlton, one of the survivors, is healed from his post-crash PTSD by joining a couple of young boys who are playing football in an alley. Oh, Chibnall. I love your press-one-emotional-button-and-all-psychological-troubles-are-healed approach. And by "love" of course I mean "facepalm at". Anyway, yeah. The ending felt rushed and a bit stilted. The first half of the movie was quite decent.
Best bit though was the sobbing scene. I'm easy.
I also rewatched Single Father. Now, I can't really be objective about this series, because it's David Tennant being an adorable, empathetic guy who loses his spouse (omg spouse death angst) and then has to struggle with the aftermath. It's like someone called me up, took down all my plot line favorites, asked who my favorite actor was and then went and made that series for me.
However, that said, I do think that it's quite a good script. It's got strong characters, and it does that thing where it doesn't demonize any of them--yes, some of the characters do really stupid, horrible things, but you're always shown why they do them, and are given an opportunity to empathize. Characters that are brought in as antagonists aren't portrayed as evil, just as people--and that goes for the protagonists as well. Actually, on rewatching, at times I felt that the one I wanted to smack the most was David Tennant's character. Which is good! Because a drama like that could so easily have fallen into the trap of making it all about the adorable widower who now has to take care of four kids, bless. It didn't, though, so kudos to the writer.
The ending is still cheesy, but not painfully so, so I'll forgive it.
And Exile promos have been released! Exile, apparently, is John Simm's new drama. Which I vaguely knew about, but had no idea was coming out so soon--May 1! Keep up the good work, boys. All of this might just tide me over until Torchwood starts airing this summer.
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Secondly, I watched United, David Tennant's new drama, the other night. I have to say, it pained me seeing DT as a football coach. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against football coaches. My dad coaches football. (I have friends who are gay coach football! Ahem.) The thing that I have issues with is the way (especially British) television tends to make these dramas that glorify football to something akin to a religion. They're always set in Manchester, and it's always about the manly honest glory of the battle on the field at Old Trafford.
Now, I get that Manchester/the North of England has a very large football (fan) community, and a long football history involving many tragedies like the Munich Air disaster and Hillsborough, which is probably part of what created this blind faith in the glory of football. But whenever I see men (like Chris Chibnall) writing dramas that unashamedly glorify football to something almost divine, I go . . . right. So men are allowed to do that. The male fan community gets to make dramas like that, and gets to build stadiums and spend ridiculous sums of money on their passion. But the female fan community has to hide away on the internet and has to scrape together money to buy some servers for the one official fan community site they have, and they have to let men write about them in an "oh look at all those women actually entertaining themselves without any men around, who would have thought it possible" way.
Yes, chip on my shoulder, I freely admit that. Doesn't change the fact, though, that David Tennant doing a football drama (written by Chris Chibnall, no less) made me cringe a little.
Anyway. I did watch it, though. (Yes, I know, way to stick it to the man, self.) Seriously, does David just go through all the scripts he gets sent and pick out the ones that let him have EPIC SOBBING SCENES? Probably. I mean, if he does, that's actually quite smart, because he's good at those epic sobbing scenes. I'm guessing, though, that it's the casting agents. Drama on one of the BBC channels featuring a humble-but-kickass character who has an epic sobbing scene? CAST DAVID TENNANT.
I have to say, though, he didn't really convince me as a football coach. He had too much class and empathy. *clears throat* Still, since most of the drama wasn't so much about football, but about PEOPLE BEING REALLY SAD ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE DYING, he worked quite well. I do think that it was set up well, possibly except for the last bit, which seemed very rushed. The script took its time to introduce the team and the characters, and then spent a lot of time building up tension for the crash and showing the aftermath, and then, within twenty minutes of a one-and-a-half hour film, David Tennant Jimmy Murphy stands up to the evil football league, holds trials for replacement players, gets together a team and wins a match for United. While at the same time, Bobby Charlton, one of the survivors, is healed from his post-crash PTSD by joining a couple of young boys who are playing football in an alley. Oh, Chibnall. I love your press-one-emotional-button-and-all-psychological-troubles-are-healed approach. And by "love" of course I mean "facepalm at". Anyway, yeah. The ending felt rushed and a bit stilted. The first half of the movie was quite decent.
Best bit though was the sobbing scene. I'm easy.
I also rewatched Single Father. Now, I can't really be objective about this series, because it's David Tennant being an adorable, empathetic guy who loses his spouse (omg spouse death angst) and then has to struggle with the aftermath. It's like someone called me up, took down all my plot line favorites, asked who my favorite actor was and then went and made that series for me.
However, that said, I do think that it's quite a good script. It's got strong characters, and it does that thing where it doesn't demonize any of them--yes, some of the characters do really stupid, horrible things, but you're always shown why they do them, and are given an opportunity to empathize. Characters that are brought in as antagonists aren't portrayed as evil, just as people--and that goes for the protagonists as well. Actually, on rewatching, at times I felt that the one I wanted to smack the most was David Tennant's character. Which is good! Because a drama like that could so easily have fallen into the trap of making it all about the adorable widower who now has to take care of four kids, bless. It didn't, though, so kudos to the writer.
The ending is still cheesy, but not painfully so, so I'll forgive it.
And Exile promos have been released! Exile, apparently, is John Simm's new drama. Which I vaguely knew about, but had no idea was coming out so soon--May 1! Keep up the good work, boys. All of this might just tide me over until Torchwood starts airing this summer.
this entry on dreamwidth ||
comments on dw || comment on dw